How to Automatically Disable Do Not Disturb Mode during Phone Calls

For an Android enthusiast like the users on our forums, receiving a major software update can be an exciting event due to the enhanced performance and new features that they often bring. While some brave users are running the first Android O Developer Preview as their daily driver, most owners of the Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Google Pixel, and Pixel XL are likely still on Android 7.1 due to its stability. Although Android 7.1 introduced many awesome new features such as app shortcuts, keyboard GIF insertion support, and round icon framework support, it also introduced a rather annoying feature in some people’s minds. With Android 7.1’s roll out came an updated Google Phone application that automatically switches the phone to Do Not Disturb mode while in the middle of a phone call.

Automatic Do Not Disturb Mode while in Calls. Screenshot Credits: Corbin Davenport//Android Police

Specifically, the dialer application seems to set the phone to Do Not Disturb mode’s “Alarms only” mode whereby no interruptions apart from your set alarms will make noise on your device. While it is indeed possible to manually turn off Do Not Disturb mode while you are in the middle of a phone call, many users find it incredibly frustrating that DND is enabled automatically. Indeed, on the comments section of the Android Police article I linked to above, many, many people were immediately wary of this feature. A user even opened an issue on Google’s Issue Tracker decrying this feature, with many other users joining in to express their frustration with automatic DND mode.

“This should be optional!!!!! I want notifications, even if I’m on a call. The other day I was on the phone when my son’s babysitter was texting me and I needed to have gotten that text immediately! I could have gotten off the call to attend to that instead of just whenever I leisurely got off the phone. This is nice for those that want it, but intolerable for those that don’t. Please make this an option or I’m going to have to have all my call on the speaker so I can stare at my screen looking for notifications.”

Comment #19: Inky1...@gmail.com

Google eventually closed the Issue back in December, marking it as “Working as Intended”, so users would have to live with this feature in the Google Phone app, or switch to another app. After I was tasked by XDA Member gruntyoldbag to look for a solution to this issue, I decided to solve this using the best tool that I’m aware of: Tasker. And it appears that a fix is actually incredibly easy.

Before Do Not Disturb Tasker Fix

After Do Not Disturb Tasker Fix

As you can see in the screenshots above, the first screenshot shows a phone call with Do Not Disturb mode automatically enabled, while the second screenshot is what happens after my tester enabled my Tasker Profile. Ignore the toast message that is shown in the screenshots, I used that for debugging!

Anyways, here’s a quick tutorial that you can follow to automatically disable Do Not Disturb mode while in phone calls. Compared to many of my previous tutorials, this one is fairly simple to replicate, but if you would rather just import the Tasker Profile and be done with it, we will provide the file at the end of this article as usual.

Automatically Disable Do Not Disturb Mode during Phone Calls

My tutorial is based on using Tasker, though it may be possible to use other Android automation apps of your choice (though I have no experience using them so you’re on your own there). Once you’ve installed Tasker, we have to set it up so Tasker can toggle Do Not Disturb mode. For some odd reason, Do Not Disturb mode is controlled by giving an app Notification Access (yes – the same permission that enables apps like Pushbullet to mirror your notifications), so we’ll have to grant that permission to Tasker.

Simply open the Settings app then search for “Notification Access” in the search bar. Look for Tasker in the list of apps with notification access and then tap on it to enable it.

Once that’s done, it’s time to make our Tasker Profile. For you Tasker pros out there, here’s the Profile description you can use to replicate it yourself. If you aren’t familiar with Tasker, simply read on for step-by-step instructions.

Disable Do Not Disturb In Call

Open up Tasker and create a new Profile by tapping on the + icon in the bottom right to add a new Profile. Name this Profile “Disable Do Not Disturb in Call.” Choose the Event Context and then go to Phone –> Phone Offhook. This Event Context will fire off a Task whenever Tasker detects that we a phone call has been initiated (incoming/outgoing, either you or the recipient has accepted the phone call).

Once that’s done, Tasker will ask us to either create a new Task or attach an existing Task to this Profile. Opt to create a new Task, but don’t bother giving it a name. Once you’re in the Task creation screen, you will need to add the following two Actions:

Task –> Wait. Wait 5 seconds.

Audio –> Do Not Disturb. Mode: All.

What this does is waits 5 seconds after Tasker recognizes that you are in a phone call before disabling Do Not Disturb mode. I’ve found that you need to have this wait timer because otherwise Tasker will disable Do Not Disturb mode before the Google Phone app enables it, so you need to add this delay so DND mode will be disabled after the Google Phone app turns it on.

Download and Import

As usual, below you can find the Profile file that you can download and import. Simply download the below .prf.xml file and save it anywhere on your internal storage. Then open up Tasker and disable Beginner Mode in Preferences. Go back to Tasker’s main screen and long-press on the Profiles tab in the action bar up top. Tap on the “Import” button that shows up and navigate to where you saved the XML file and select it to import it.

If you do import this, make sure you go back and grant Notification Access for Tasker in Settings, as described earlier in the article. Otherwise, this Profile won’t do anything!

Try this out and let me know if it works for you. I honestly had no idea this automatic Do Not Disturb mode was even a thing until I was tipped by XDA Member gruntyoldbag. If you come across an annoying problem such as this that you wish could be fixed, feel free to message me on the XDA forums or use the e-mail address listed to contact me. While I probably can’t (and won’t) help you for individual technical support questions, I am always happy to look into issues that seem to be affecting a large number of users, and those issues which seem like they can be resolved easily with Tasker.

As for this particular issue, it appears that Google intends to keep things the way they are for now, despite many users’ complaints. Samsung Experience software seems to have a toggle to enable/disable Do Not Disturb mode while in calls, so you’ll either have to wait for Google to update the Phone app with this feature, use another dialer app, remember to manually disable DND mode in calls, or use my Tasker solution.

About Author

Long-time Android enthusiast starting from all the way back to the Sprint HTC Hero. Partial to the Nexus line, but open to try anything with Android on it. XDA's resident master of everything Tasker.
Please direct media inquiries to mishaal@xda-developers.com

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